Two Parkes cricketers were recently involved in representing the Western Zone at Country Championships, another sign of the burgeoning cricketing talent coming out of Parkes.
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Maddy Spence played in the victorious Western side who took out the women's under 16's Country Championships, while Harry Bayliss played for the Western Zone in the Country Colts competition.
Spence's Western side successfully enacted their revenge on Riverina when they took out the championships in Canberra earlier this week.
After going down to Riverina in the pool stages Western earned a rematch in Tuesday's decider - courtesy of wins over ACT Southern Districts and Greater Illawarra - and they came away with the title in a four wicket victory.
It was Western's first win in a junior women's Country Championships event since their 2012-13 triumph in under 15s'.
Spence had a strong tournament individually, untroubled in a strong knock of 53* as she opened the batting for Western in their 11 run win over ACT/Southern Districts.
She backed that up with a couple of impressive bowling performances in the final two games.
Against Illawarra she bowled two overs that included a maiden, a wicket and just a solitary run against; before chipping in with a crucial 2/10 off three overs in the grand final against Riverina.
So keen for another few games of cricket, Spence is filling in for Illawarra at the under 19's Country Championships after COVID-19 forced the withdrawal of several Wollongong based players.
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It was a tough tournament for Bayliss and his fellow Western Colts, but Western coach Garth Dean is still excited about the future.
Dean's Western squad posted one bonus point win across their three 50-overs-a-side games at the Albury based tournament, but there were still a host of positives.
They batted well, they fielded well and importantly, a bulk of that squad will still be eligible to play colts again next season.
"Eight of those players are bottom age, so that's an extremely young side .. that's a positive thing. I still felt the side was good enough to win the carnival, so if we go back next year with those guys as top age - that's a big positive," the Bathurst-based coach said.
"Six of the players from this team are from the winning Kookaburra Cup team from 2018, so next year that's the equivalent year for top age, we're looking forward to next year."
Bayliss struggled to get many opportunities in such an even and talented Western side but saved his best for last, taking 1/31 off his 10 overs in the final game against Illawarra.
He has been performing strongly at both senior and junior level here in Parkes, so no doubt bigger and better things are in store for Bayliss - evident in his incredible 6/21 for the Cats in Lachlan Premier Cricket.
